AdjustSense: Adaptive 3D Sensing System with Adjustable Spatio-Temporal Resolution and Measurement Range Using High-Speed Omnidirectional Camera and Direct Drive Motor.

Many types of 3D sensing devices are commercially available and were utilized in various technical fields. In most conventional systems with a 3D sensing device, the spatio-temporal resolution and the measurement range are constant during operation. Consequently, it is necessary to select an appropriate sensing system according to the measurement task. Moreover, such conventional systems have difficulties dealing with several measurement targets simultaneously due to the aforementioned constants. This issue can hardly be solved by integrating several individual sensing systems into one. Here, we propose a single 3D sensing system that adaptively adjusts the spatio-temporal resolution and the measurement range to switch between multiple measurement tasks. We named the proposed adaptive 3D sensing system "AdjustSense." In AdjustSense, as a means for the adaptive adjustment of the spatio-temporal resolution and measurement range, we aimed to achieve low-latency visual feedback for the adjustment by integrating not only a high-speed camera, which is a high-speed sensor, but also a direct drive motor, which is a high-speed actuator. This low-latency visual feedback can enable a large range of 3D sensing tasks simultaneously. We demonstrated the behavior of AdjustSense when the positions of the measured targets in the surroundings were changed. Furthermore, we quantitatively evaluated the spatio-temporal resolution and measurement range from the 3D points obtained. Through two experiments, we showed that AdjustSense could realize multiple measurement tasks: 360∘ 3D sensing, 3D sensing at a high spatial resolution around multiple targets, and local 3D sensing at a high spatio-temporal resolution around a single object.

Image Captioning Using Motion-CNN with Object Detection.

Automatic image captioning has many important applications, such as the depiction of visual contents for visually impaired people or the indexing of images on the internet. Recently, deep learning-based image captioning models have been researched extensively. For caption generation, they learn the relation between image features and words included in the captions. However, image features might not be relevant for certain words such as verbs. Therefore, our earlier reported method included the use of motion features along with image features for generating captions including verbs. However, all the motion features were used. Since not all motion features contributed positively to the captioning process, unnecessary motion features decreased the captioning accuracy. As described herein, we use experiments with motion features for thorough analysis of the reasons for the decline in accuracy. We propose a novel, end-to-end trainable method for image caption generation that alleviates the decreased accuracy of caption generation. Our proposed model was evaluated using three datasets: MSR-VTT2016-Image, MSCOCO, and several copyright-free images. Results demonstrate that our proposed method improves caption generation performance.

Room-Temperature Antiferroelectricity in Multiferroic Hexagonal Rare-Earth Ferrites.

The antiferroelectric (AFE) phase, in which nonpolar and polar states are switchable by an electric field, is a recent discovery in promising multiferroics of hexagonal rare-earth manganites (ferrites), h-RMn(Fe)O3. However, this phase has so far only been observed at 60-160 K, which restricts key investigations into the microstructures and magnetoelectric behaviors. Herein, we report the successful expansion of the AFE temperature range (10-300 K) by preparing h-DyFeO3 films through epitaxial stabilization. Room-temperature scanning transmission electron microscopy reveals that the AFE phase originates from a nanomosaic structure comprising AFE P3̅c1 and ferroelectric P63cm domains with small domain sizes of 1-10 nm. The nanomosaic structure is stabilized by a low c/a ratio derived from the large ionic radius of Dy3+. Furthermore, weak ferromagnetism and magnetocapacitance behaviors are observed. Below 10 K, the film exhibits an M-shaped magnetocapacitance versus magnetic field curve, indicating unusual magnetoelectric coupling in the AFE phase.

Acoustic Inspection of Concrete Structures Using Active Weak Supervision and Visual Information.

Concrete structures are featured heavily in most modern societies. In recent years, the need to inspect those structures has been a growing concern and the automation of inspection methods is highly demanded. Acoustic methods such as the hammering test are one of the most popular non-destructive testing methods for this task. In this paper, an approach to defect detection in concrete structures with active weak supervision and visual information is proposed. Based on audio and position information, pairs of samples are actively queried to a user on their similarity. Those are used to transform the feature space into a favorable one, in a weakly supervised fashion, for clustering defect and non-defect samples, reinforced by position information. Experiments conducted in both laboratory conditions and in field conditions proved the effectiveness of the proposed method.

The transmembrane segment of TagH is required for wall teichoic acid transport under heat stress in Bacillus subtilis.

Wall teichoic acids (WTAs) are anionic polymers that are covalently linked to peptidoglycan and play important roles in cell shape determination, cell division, autolysis, pathogenesis and antibiotic resistance in Gram-positive bacteria. In Bacillus subtilis, WTA is synthesized in the cytoplasm and translocated by an ABC transporter, TagGH. In this study, we found that the transmembrane segment of TagH is required for WTA transport under high temperatures. Cells expressing TagH302-FL (a construct fused to the 6×FLAG tag after the transmembrane segment, which lacks the C-terminal extracellular domain) grew normally at high temperatures, similar to those expressing the full-length TagH-FL fusion. In contrast, cells expressing TagH275-FL, which lacks both the transmembrane segment and the extracellular domain, exhibited a temperature-sensitive phenotype at temperatures above 49 °C and a growth defect at 50 °C. Interestingly, this growth defect was dissolved by an additional incubation at 37 °C. A similar temperature-sensitive phenotype was observed in cells expressing an N-terminal 6×FLAG tag fusion of TagH275. Immunofluorescence microscopy (IFM) indicated that TagG and TagH are localized on the cytoplasmic membrane in a patch-like manner. In addition, the C-terminal-truncated forms, TagH275-FL and TagH302-FL, were localized in similar patch-like patterns at 37 °C; only foci for TagH275-FL were remarkably reduced at high temperatures. Moreover, cell surface decoration with WTA was considerably reduced in cells harbouring TagH275-FL at high temperature, supporting the results of IFM observation. These results suggest that the transmembrane segment of TagH plays an important role in WTA export at high temperatures.

Application of Freeze-Dried Powders of Genetically Engineered Microbial Strains as Adsorbents for Rare Earth Metal Ions.

The adsorption behaviors of the rare earth metal ions onto freeze-dried powders of genetically engineered microbial strains were compared. Cell powders obtained from four kinds of strains, Bacillus subtilis 168 wild type (WT), lipoteichoic acid-defective (ΔLTA), wall teichoic acid-defective (ΔWTA), and cell wall hydrolases-defective (EFKYOJLp) strains, were used as an adsorbent of the rare earth metal ions at pH 3. The adsorption ability of the rare earth metal ions was in the order of EFKYOJLp > WT > ΔLTA > ΔWTA. The order was the same as the order of the phosphorus quantity of the strains. This result indicates that the main adsorption sites for the ions are the phosphate groups and the teichoic acids, LTA and WTA, that contribute to the adsorption of the rare earth metal ions onto the cell walls. The contribution of WTA was clearly greater than that of LTA. Each microbial powder was added to a solution containing 16 kinds of rare earth metal ions, and the removals (%) of each rare earth metal ion were obtained. The scandium ion showed the highest removal (%), while that of the lanthanum ion was the lowest for all the microbial powders. Differences in the distribution coefficients between the kinds of lanthanide ions by the EFKYOJLp and ΔWTA powders were greater than those of the other strains. Therefore, the EFKYOJLp and ΔWTA powders could be applicable for the selective extraction of the lanthanide ions. The ΔLTA powder coagulated by mixing with a rare earth metal ion, although no sedimentation of the WT or ΔWTA powder with a rare earth metal ion was observed under the same conditions. The EFKYOJLp powder was also coagulated, but its flocculating activity was lower than that of ΔLTA. The ΔLTA and EFKYOJLp powders have a long shape compared to those of the WT or ΔWTA strain. The shapes of the cells will play an important role in the sedimentation of the microbial powders with rare earth metal ions. As the results, three kinds of the genetically engineered microbial powders revealed unique adsorption behaviors of the rare earth metal ions.

Teichoic Acid Polymers Affect Expression and Localization of dl-Endopeptidase LytE Required for Lateral Cell Wall Hydrolysis in Bacillus subtilis.

UNLABELLED: In Bacillus subtilis, the dl-endopeptidase LytE is responsible for lateral peptidoglycan hydrolysis during cell elongation. We found that σ(I)-dependent transcription of lytE is considerably enhanced in a strain with a mutation in ltaS, which encodes a major lipoteichoic acid (LTA) synthase. Similar enhancements were observed in mutants that affect the glycolipid anchor and wall teichoic acid (WTA) synthetic pathways. Immunofluorescence microscopy revealed that the LytE foci were considerably increased in these mutants. The localization patterns of LytE on the sidewalls appeared to be helix-like in LTA-defective or WTA-reduced cells and evenly distributed on WTA-depleted or -defective cell surfaces. These results strongly suggested that LTA and WTA affect both σ(I)-dependent expression and localization of LytE. Interestingly, increased LytE localization along the sidewall in the ltaS mutant largely occurred in an MreBH-independent manner. Moreover, we found that cell surface decorations with LTA and WTA are gradually reduced at increased culture temperatures and that LTA rather than WTA on the cell surface is reduced at high temperatures. In contrast, the amount of LytE on the cell surface gradually increased under heat stress conditions. Taken together, these results indicated that reductions in these anionic polymers at high temperatures might give rise to increases in SigI-dependent expression and cell surface localization of LytE at high temperatures. IMPORTANCE: The bacterial cell wall is required for maintaining cell shape and bearing environmental stresses. The Gram-positive cell wall consists of mesh-like peptidoglycan and covalently linked wall teichoic acid and lipoteichoic acid polymers. It is important to determine if these anionic polymers are required for proliferation and environmental adaptation. Here, we demonstrated that these polymers affect the expression and localization of a peptidoglycan hydrolase LytE required for lateral cell wall elongation. Moreover, we found that cell surface decorations with teichoic acid polymers are substantially decreased at high temperatures and that the peptidoglycan hydrolase is consequently increased. These findings suggest that teichoic acid polymers control lateral peptidoglycan hydrolysis by LytE, and bacteria drastically change their cell wall content to adapt to their environment.